Planning for the Future -- Strategy

Copyright 2008 by Charles R. Schaul, Boulder, Colorado. All rights reserved.

One of the business cards I carry describes me as a Strategic Planning Facilitator. (Not a big deal, almost every consultant carries a similar card these days.)

However, since people think of me as a strategic planning expert, I’m frequently asked just what Strategic Planning means to the ordinary small business owner. Skip to the last paragraph if you want the answer without the full explanation.

I think of it this way. The six elements of strategy are:

1. Knowledge
   
2. Strategic thinking
   
3. Strategic planning
   
4. Tactical planning
   
5. Tactical plan execution
   
6. Monitoring and revising

Knowledge means knowing about your business, your market, your competition, the economy, trends, customer preferences, technology – in other words – knowing about the things important to the future of your business. The more you know, the better chance you have of developing a good strategy. Conversely, the less you know, the poorer chance you have of defining a workable strategy.

Strategic Thinking means thinking about those things that will make a long-term difference to your company. Such things as changing the way you do business, how you compete in your market, the products and markets you want to serve in the future, the resources that you gather for your efforts, etc. In other words, thinking today about those things that will define your company for the future.

Strategic Planning is the process used to convert Strategic Thinking to more practical and executable tasks. It embodies setting objectives, developing strategies and understanding strategic policies.

Tactical Planning is the process used to convert strategies into step-by-step attainable plans with measurable results on a specific timetable. Action plans can be analyzed for cost and benefit, for priorities, and for the risk involved for both the plan and the company.

Tactical Plan Execution is simple. It’s where the rubber meets the road. Your knowledge, strategic thinking, strategic planning and action planning come to a head in action plan execution. Do a poor job here, and all the prior work is wasted. Do a good job here to improve your chance of reaching your strategic objectives.

Monitoring and Revising means just that. Monitor the action plans to ensure desired results be achieved on time and within budget. Revision means that if the action plans are not achieving the desired results, or are off schedule, or require more resources than estimated, then changes to the action plan are made.

Strategic thinking creates vision. Although vision isn’t set in concrete, it’s the one thing that doesn’t change with the ups and downs of daily business. Vision is the guiding star towards which you move your company.

Strategic plans and action plans aren’t fixed. They change from time to time as business conditions, competitive situations, technology and resource availability change. Remember though that your target, your vision, remains steady.

Monitoring tells us how we’re doing. It’s the first place where we observe the result of changing conditions. If conditions don’t change, and we monitor the performance of our action plans, we’ll meet all of the targets set out in the action plans. As conditions change, we’ll be aware that we don’t meet our targets because of those changes. That’s when revision comes into play and we change the action plans, and sometimes the strategic plans, but never revision.

So, after all that, what does Strategic Planning mean to the small business owner? EVERYTHING. It’s the difference between going to work every day to do the same thing for the same people at the same location and with the same result, or creating for yourself something immensely exciting for your future.

In summary, and especially for those that skipped to this last paragraph, strategy elements are the tools that allow you to define how you want your future to look, and then help you create that future as you have defined it.

Charles R. Schaul, Partner of SixPillars Research Group, focuses on increasing business profits by resolving the problem of customer attrition. Aligning companies with their customers; generating and implementing strategic initiatives; and promoting employees’ customer focus through commitment, responsibility and accountability combine to achieve the result.